


With No Light to Show the Way

by Drag0nst0rm



Series: A Different War [2]
Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Temporary Character Death, bullet point fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-19 20:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drag0nst0rm/pseuds/Drag0nst0rm
Summary: In which the elves have no victory, no Silmarils, and no way to reach the Valar to make an appeal.Unless you count all the elves headed to Mandos, of course.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the Silmarillion.

\- Doriath marches to war, but Beren and Luthien do not. Dior is an adolescent, but he is not fully grown. Elvish parents can’t go to war and leave a child behind. It’s just not done, even though they try to argue the point. Thingol goes, though, despite Melian’s warnings.

\- There is no Luthien to take down Sauron. Morgoth never even goes onto the field. They do better than they would have without Nargothrond and Doriath’s armies, but they don’t do well enough.

\- Fingon dies. Azaghal dies. Huan dies. Hurin gets captured.

\- Thingol dies too. Melian abandons Doriath, and Luthien takes the crown with Beren as her consort.

\- Finrod is now High King of the Noldor. This does some good, actually. Having a king that’s not tucked away in Gondolin is good for both morale and organization. The surviving Noldor are less scattered. Celegorm and Curufin’s people are still in Nargothrond. Caranthir withdraws to Amon Ereb, and his other brothers join them there. Thanks to their slightly less disastrous defeat, their numbers are sufficient for this to be rather crowded. Amrod and Amras withdraw to the south and build a fortress near the Mouths of the Sirion at Maedhros’s request. It helps to secure passage to where Cirdan’s people have retreated to the Isle of Balar.

\- Turin’s story goes pretty much the same, with only a few differences. Beren is more sympathetic to his desire to help his people than Thingol was and although Beren is too old to go himself, he sends some warriors. They can’t retake the ground, but they do manage to do a lot of damage and to get some of Turin’s people to safety in Brethil. Unfortunately, Turin doesn’t find his mother and sister.

\- But when Turin returns from doing this, he still ends up accidentally killing Saeros.

\- Beren has a lot of sympathy with this (personally, he would have challenged Saeros a long time ago if he thought he could get away with it), but unfortunately, Turin still refuses to return. The curse proceeds apace, and Turin eventually turns up in Nargothrond.

\- Finrod knows exactly who this is, and also knows he’s Beren and Luthien’s foster son. He still owes Beren. Of course Turin will be welcome there.

\- Curufin and Celegorm are less than enthused about this.

\- Finrod is not easily swayed, but he is determined not to just lock himself away. They still take the fight to the enemy. They still build the bridge.

\- Curufin is very opposed to this concept. Partially because he’s taken a dislike to Turin, and partially because he genuinely thinks it’s a terrible idea. When he gets overruled, he leads his brother and their followers out of Nargothrond. This is a disaster in the making, and he’s not sticking around for it.

\- Celebrimbor goes with them. He likes the idea of the bridge, but unlike something like, say, sending Finrod to die, it’s not a hill he’s willing to make a stand on.

\- Nargothrond falls. Finrod dies. The disaster that is Turin’s life continues on.

\- Curufin feels vindicated, but he’s smart enough not to say that too loudly.

\- Gondolin’s fall happens as per canon. Without the girdle to keep out those of the Noldor that aren’t Finarfin’s children, however, and with a friendlier face on the throne, the survivors flee to Doriath. Luthien and Beren feel a certain sympathy for Tuor and Idril.

\- Unfortunately, Luthien is in the last days of her rule. Beren is old. He doesn’t live long past the fall of Gondolin, and Luthien fades soon after. With a full life behind them, Luthien can’t persuade Mandos to send them back, but she does persuade him to let her follow Beren into a mortal fate. Dior takes the crown.

\- He gets a letter from the Feanorians, specifically Celegorm and Curufin. They want to set up a settlement on the edge of his lands. It’ll give his people more protection from Angband, so despite the slightly off-putting tone of the letter, Dior is happy to agree.

\- Morgoth sends out forces to test their defenses. They stand firm.

\- Earendil and Elwing grow up. They get married. Elwing gets pregnant.

\- Idril and Tuor wait for the twins to be born before making an announcement. Idril is abdicating in favor of Earendil. He’s old enough now that she’s confident he can handle things. She and Tuor are making a bid to try and brings news of their plight to the Undying Lands.

\- This is only part of their reasoning, but it’s the only part they make public. The other part is that Tuor is getting older. He wants to satisfy his sea longing before it’s too late. Idril nurses a secret hope that maybe his life can be preserved in Aman.

\- Dior doesn’t know this, but he guesses. He wishes them luck. They sail.

\- Morgoth has continued sending forces against them. Doriath’s might combined with the Feanorians has sufficed to withstand him.

\- Morgoth unleashes the winged dragons.

\- Curufin and Celegorm’s stronghold falls. Celegorm dies in the first onslaught. Curufin dies shortly after ordering Celebrimbor to lead the retreat.

\- Celebrimbor leads as many of their people as he can through the woods to Doriath. Cave system that it is, it’s got a better shot of withstanding the dragons.

\- It does do better. But better’s not good enough.

\- Or rather - It’s not good enough for those who fall. It is good enough to buy some time. Time in which Maglor, who has been riding to bring word from Maedhros to his brothers, gets to their stronghold and discovers what has happened. Time in which he rides frantically on to Doriath.

\- And, of course, in those days, no one rides alone. Maglor’s got quite the sizable company with him.

\- By the time they get there, Doriath’s defenses have been breached, but the battle’s still ongoing. It’s being lost by the defenders, but it’s not over. Not yet.

\- Elured and Elurin die fighting, not as children, but as grown peredhel defending their king, who is also their father.

\- Dior never wanted that. He and Nimloth fall not long after.

\- Elwing dies just as Maglor and his men reach where she and Earendil are desperately defending their children. There is no miracle this time.

\- She dies facing a dragon.

\- The wings do it no good in the cramped tunnel. Earendil is wounded and grieving, but he is determined not to let it pass.

\- Maglor dives into the fight.

\- He survives it. Earendil … Earendil has been fighting this battle for much longer. Maglor sees, even as he kneels next to him to try to help, that though Earendil may have outlived the dragon, he is not going to survive the night.

\- The twins are crying. Earendil reaches for them, and he can’t talk, not now, but his eyes are desperate, so Maglor pours every bit of persuasion he has into his voice, and promises, “I’ll get them out. They’ll be all right.”

\- He does. Doriath’s lost, but he rounds up all the survivors he can and nearly weeps when he sees they include his nephew. The Men of Brethil and the survivors of Turin’s people, who have been hit just as hard, join them. He leads them on a desperate retreat to Amon Ereb, and he keeps the twins by his side the whole way.

\- Some of the survivors go to the relative safety of the Isle of Balor. Others are determined to stay with their two infant princes, and those are staying at Amon Ereb because with winged dragons in play, nowhere is actually safe, and so Maglor judges it best if they travel as little as possible since traveling's currently the riskiest proposition. He promised Earendil he’d look after them, and he means to do so.

\- Elrond and Elros are the bright spots of the fortress that the elves are so desperately re-fortifying with flying dragons in mind. There aren’t many children these days which makes everyone all the more determined to protect what few they have. Maglor is the one actually fostering them, but Maedhros and Caranthir take an interest too, as does Celebrimbor. Amrod and Amras can do less, but the cheer in Maglor’s letters when he speaks of them is appreciated by them both.

\- Gil-Galad is now technically the king of the Noldor. He offers the crown back to Maedhros on the grounds that most of the surviving forces are either Feanorians or will be under Elrond and Elros’s control once they grow up. Given that those two are being fostered by Maglor, Gil-Galad doesn’t anticipate their first loyalty will be to him. He definitely doesn’t anticipate any of the Feanorians following his orders if Maedhros disapproves of them.

\- Maedhros insists that he gave up all rights to the crown and that his last leadership initiative was a disaster. The crown is Gil-Galad’s.

\- Gil-Galad thinks this is a mistake, but he doesn’t want to send too many missives about it in case they’re intercepted. The last thing they need is the enemy sensing weakness. (Or, rather, more weakness than is already dreadfully apparent.) He keeps the crown.

\- Cirdan tries to send ships to the Valar pleading for aid. They try sending penitent kinslayers. They try sending penitent non-kinslaying Noldor. They try sending Sindar. They try sending some of the Avari. They try sending Men. None of them ever come back, and no response from the Valar appears.

\- In the privacy of Maedhros’s office, Caranthir says what they’re all thinking. “If they don’t send aid, we’re all going to die.”

\- “We’ve no reason to believe they’ve let any of the boats through,” Maedhros says wearily. “If they won’t even let us make an appeal, we haven’t got a chance of persuading them. They said not even the echo of our lamentations would reach them, so we’ve no reason to believe they’re listening to our prayers. Unless Ulmo sends another dream, we’ve no way of contacting any of them.”

\- Celebrimbor pauses in his sketching of a design of a new weapon to try against the dragons. “ … Technically, that’s not true. We’ve been sending lots of unofficial messengers that we know are getting through. We just haven’t been sending them prepared to make an appeal to the Vala they’re reaching.”

\- Maglor is the first to get it. “Mandos. Quite a lot of us have been reaching Mandos.”

\- “We are not killing someone in order to deliberately send them to Mandos,” Maedhros says.

\- Caranthir shrugs. “We don’t have to. We’re losing enough people as it is. We just have to make sure everyone’s prepared in case they go.”

\- “That will certainly have an interesting effect on morale,” Maglor murmurs. “Unless we’re careful about it, of course … A few carefully planted suggestions to have a few choice words for Mandos should we see him any time soon … “

\- “He’s not easily moved to pity,” Maedhros points out. There are deep shadows under his eyes. He isn’t against the idea so much as he is past believing anything will help, as careful as he normally is not to show it.

\- Maglor’s eyes are already distant. “I’ll compose a new song,” he says, idea clearly catching hold. “I’ll keep composing new ones until someone manages to use one against him that works.”

\- The idea catches fire quickly. The rank and file mainly intend to have a few choice words; those higher up in the hierarchy quietly compose carefully memorized speeches that they intend to make.

\- Absolutely no one intends for Elrond and Elros to write speeches of their own, but they find Maglor’s, and they decide that they should have one between them, just in case.

\- Maglor catches them practicing it and is horrified. They apologize.

\- And start being more careful about where they practice it.

\- Objectively, they’re probably the most protected people in the fortress, but even they leave it sometimes.

\- For instance: When Amrod and Amras make one of their rare trips to Amon Ereb to conference with their brothers. Things have been quiet recently, and so, since getting food is increasingly a problem, the Feanorian twins decide to take a day and go hunting. They’re eager to get to spend time with this younger set of twins, so they try to talk Maglor into letting Elrond and Elros go with them. 

\- Maglor reluctantly allows Elrond to go, but Elros has to stay behind since he recently broke his leg climbing a tree Maglor specifically told him not to climb. 

\- So they go.

\- Quiet doesn’t mean safe. Quiet just means quiet.

\- They don’t come back.

\- Elros collapses. The remaining brothers can feel something’s wrong too. Caranthir’s left in charge of the fort, and Maglor and Maedhros ride out.

\- They find the dead guards. They find where the Ambarussa fell trying to defend their young charge.

\- They find the proof of their failure.

\- Maedhros takes another step towards breaking. Maglor is pushed all the way to the brink.

\- They burn the bodies. They don’t have a choice. Maglor starts singing something Maedhros has never heard before, and he won’t stop, all the way back, not even when his voice starts to fade. 

\- Maedhros focuses on that, focuses on desperately trying to protect his younger brother, because allowing himself to think of anything else is something he can’t afford right now.

\- Maglor only snaps out of it when a healer rushes up to them at the gate and tells them there’s something terribly wrong with Elros. They rush there and see that Elros - Well, he’s not fading, not yet, but he’s lost both parents and now his twin, and that’s not good for a grown elf, much less an elfling.

\- Maglor stops his mourning song and starts pouring all his efforts into keeping Elros alive. Maedhros pours his into figuring out how they’re going to defend his brothers’ fortress without his brothers. Maglor’s in no shape to go, and Maedhros refuses to remove himself from the front lines. He knows he should send Caranthir, but he desperately doesn’t want to let any of his remaining family out of his sight.

\- He sends him anyway and prays he’ll be safer there. He’s pretty sure the Valar aren’t listening, but it can’t hurt to try.

\- Meanwhile in Mandos, the Ambarussa try to present their plea. Mandos isn’t interested in hearing from kinslayers.

\- Elrond is right behind them in the queue. He watches the elves he thinks of as his uncles be escorted away, and he clings to the last words of encouragement they manage to shout to him.

\- Mandos tells him he has to make a choice between Men and elves.

\- In other circumstances, Elrond would have stopped to consider this properly. Under these, it’s not even a choice. Elros is back there. Elros needs him. Men don’t return, but elves do. Obviously, Elrond will be an elf.

\- Immediately after stating this, he rolls into his prepared speech.

\- Mandos … Mandos would not say he is moved by it, but he is not unmoved either. He tells Elrond that the Doom stands, but that Elrond is correct that he should not properly fall under its punishment. Since Elrond has done nothing Mandos sees fit to punish him for, since he is so young, and since he seems surprisingly untraumatized by his death, Mandos will release him in a matter of weeks.

\- Despite his youth and Maglor’s best efforts, that was far from the first skirmish Elrond has been in. It isn’t even the first he had been injured in. The only thing different about this one is that he has died, and he has died relatively painlessly at that. Of course he isn’t traumatized, Elrond thinks, why would he be? He’s far more worried about how everyone else is reacting to his death.

\- Elrond accepts Mandos’s decision with grace.

\- After all, he’s finally achieved what they’ve been aiming for. In a few weeks, he’ll be loose in Aman to track down the rest of the Valar to make his case.

\- And if they still won’t listen, he’ll figure out a way to cross the sea and shame as many people as possible into following no matter what the Valar have to say about it.


	2. Chapter 2

\- For the first few - Well, Elrond thinks they’re minutes, but under the circumstances, he’s probably wrong - for the first little bit, Elrond is alone. 

\- Which feels strange, because alone isn’t something Elrond has frequently been in his short life. He spends nearly all his time with Elros, after all, and even when they’re not physically together, he can still feel his brother. Except now he can’t. And even aside from Elros, there’s nearly always someone else nearby. Official guards whenever he left the safety of the fortress. Less official guards from paranoid lords of Doriath and concerned adults focusing on one of the few children. Tutors giving lessons. Honorary uncles. Maglor. The large collection of friendly people crammed into a slightly too small fortress, all of which knew him by sight and were keeping at least half an eye on him at all times. And the lesson that all of them have given him is that if something goes wrong, and he’s ever separated from this group of hovering people, he needs to find his way back to them or to another group of friendly, well-armed elves as soon as possible. 

\- He’s working on the first. He can modify the advice of the second. He’s got a lot of dead family members; surely it won’t take long to find one. 

\- It really doesn’t. In fact, before he knows it, he’s been descended on by pretty much all of his dead family members. This includes: 

\- His parents. (“What happened? How’s your brother? You’ve grown so much - “ interspersed with a lot of very tight hugs.)

\- His actual uncles. (“We hear you went down fighting. Well done. No, Elwing, wait, we didn’t mean it like that - “)

\- His maternal grandparents. (“You look just like the twins did at your age!”)

\- His maternal great-great-grandfather. (But not his great-grandparents. For … obvious reasons.)

\- His paternal grandmother and grandfather, technically. (“I’m sorry your appeal didn’t meet with much success. I’m afraid we never landed to make ours either. They got particularly upset over Tuor, quite unreasonably, and Mandos is even more upset that Tuor refuses to move on from his halls. We’re working on it. Unfortunately in the meantime he can’t communicate very easily like this, but I’m sure he’s very glad to see you, dear. Or, well, not glad you’re here, but - “)

\- His paternal great-grandparents. (“What news of the war? It’s a fair question, Elenwe!”)

\- His paternal great-great grandfather, who he’s frankly a bit in awe of.

\- A vast collection of people who are technically varying degrees of related that he’s just going to label “cousin,” including, but not limited to, Aredhel, Fingon, and Finrod (unfortunately, without the Silmaril quest, he’s not judged quite heroic enough to get early release).

\- And, of course, the man whose name became synonymous with king. Finwe.

\- All of them are a) very glad to see him, b) wishing it was under other circumstances, and c) very, very eager for news of what’s going on. 

\- Elrond is happy to give them that news. It’s mostly good news, after all - The fort’s holding strong, the rate of casualties has dropped ever since Celebrimbor figured out a new defense system, and they might have a new water purification system soon that’ll let them make some of the waters Morgoth’s poisoned safe for at least elvish consumption! 

\- Elrond has a rather skewed view of good news. 

\- And, of course, even he has to admit that not all of it is good news. The Ambarussa are dead after all, and he badly wants to talk to them, but it’s against the rules, and he knows he can’t risk jeopardizing this chance by breaking them. 

\- Finwe tells him not to worry about it. “I can carry any messages you like,” he says cheerfully. “I’ve been visiting them all anyway. It’s already been decided that I’m going to be staying here permanently, so Mandos has had a hard time incentivizing me to stop, and ever since he figured out that it helps keep things from boiling over, I don’t think he’s been trying very hard.” 

\- By boiling over, Elrond is given to understand by the others that what he means is Feanor starting a riot. Or finding some way to break out. Or coming up with some previously unthought of way of causing trouble.

\- Elrond decides that the next time he dies, he’ll risk breaking the rules. He’d really like to meet Feanor. He wishes he could ask Finwe to get a message from Feanor for his remaining sons, he thinks it would mean quite a lot to them, but he doesn’t quite dare express his intentions so bluntly.   
\- Finwe did not become (and stay) king by being an idiot. He has his suspicions, and in any case, it can’t hurt to subtly pass a few anecdotes of his son’s current thoughts along.

\- Everyone’s a little concerned about what will happen to Elrond when he gets out. Who will he stay with? Most of his immediate family is dead, and his guardians are across the sea. 

\- Fortunately, Mandos thought of this. He informed Finarfin that one of the House of Finwe was to be released. Predictably, that got Finarfin and Earwen over there very fast. 

\- Unfortunately, Mandos didn’t see the need to specify who was being released, which meant they were in agony of anticipation. 

\- “Your brother? Mandos mentioned how valiant he was when he told us Nolofinwe was dead. Maybe they’re releasing him early?” 

\- “Or Itarille? She was such a little girl when she left, they can’t possible hold her responsible … “ 

\- Neither of them mention the hope that hangs above them, too great to risk voicing. Maybe … Maybe it will be one of their children? 

\- There’s a small group of people released at once. They don’t notice Elrond at first. He hears them talking, and he steps forward, apologetic about the fact that he is not quite what they are expecting.

\- There’s the first moment of crushed hope. It is not one of their children.

\- But it is a child. Itarille’s grandson, he informs them, and that thought boggles the mind, and - 

\- He died. 

\- Very, very few of the exiled dead have returned to life. They know little about what happens beyond the sea aside from Mandos’s regularly updated list of the dead.

\- Maybe, Finarfin dares hope, he’s just looks young for his age. 

\- Cautious inquiries reveals that no, no, Elrond in fact looks rather old for his age, a fact which Elrond attributes to his Mannish blood. 

\- Obviously, they are very willing to take Elrond with them back to Tirion. 

\- Elrond asks if he will be able to put his petition to the Valar from there, at which point, the whole story about their latest attempt to contact the Valar comes out. 

\- Being king of the Noldor has certain privileges. Requesting to meet with the Valar is one of them, and Finarfin is past ready to exercise that right. 

\- So arrangements start to be made and they begin to travel, and they run into a … misunderstanding. 

\- Well, multiple misunderstandings. 

\- Elrond considers himself to be rather sheltered. By Beleriand standards, of course, he is. By Aman standards … not so much.

\- “ … I suppose it isn’t surprising he has some training with weaponry,” Finarfin says to Earwen as they watch him practice with a borrowed knife. “They wanted him to be prepared,” Earwen agrees. 

\- (They don’t talk about how very, very good he is. Or about how when one of the more tactless of the guards tried to amuse him with a typical children’s horror story about orcs, his eyebrows had furrowed and he’d corrected several details on orcish anatomy and tactics and suggested alternate tactics the elvish characters could have used to survive.) 

\- “You were looking in that water a long time,” Earwen comments to him. 

\- “I was looking for fish,” he explains. 

\- “Oh! Would you like to go fishing this evening? I’m sure we can find a rod somewhere - ” 

\- Elrond explains that while he would be happy to fish for their supper, he was actually checking to make sure the water was safe to drink like Maedhros had taught him, and the reason it had taken so long was that he hadn’t recognized the kind of fish, and he’d wanted to make sure they weren’t tainted … His voice trails off. “Only I don’t suppose you have that problem here,” he says quietly. 

\- “No,” Earwen says, rather shaken, “we don’t.” 

\- (If they get their children back, will they recognize them?) 

\- They get to the Ring of Doom. They present their case. 

\- They win. 

\- No one explicitly forbids Elrond from going with the quickly gathering force. No one thought they would have to. This is a mistake on their part.

\- Elrond … doesn’t sneak. He carefully joins the assembling army, which is definitely equipped with weapons made only after the announcement was made and made up of people who had no intentions of marching until given permission. Definitely.

\- (They’re Noldor, and Nerdanel’s been aggravating for this for years. There’s no definitely about it.) 

\- They sail.

\- Finarfin catches Elrond and shouts at him about this not being a game; Elrond doesn’t shout when he gets angry, het gets quiet, and he is viciously, icily quiet now as he spits out all the little details about living the long defeat that he never shared before and has now started to realize aren’t just normal living. He knows this isn’t a game. Finarfin gives up on the argument and keeps him close, hoping to keep him safe. 

\- As fast as they move, the gathering of the army and the voyage take time. By the time they get there, a year or two has passed, and things have worsened. The elves and Men are down to the Isle of Balar and Ambarussa’s old fortress; they hear some of the dwarves are still holding strong, but communication is all but nonexistent. 

\- Elros has more or less pulled himself together from a near comatose state to a terrifying fighter that Maglor can’t keep back from the fight because the fight is everywhere. 

\- Maedhros isn’t sure if Elros cares if he lives or dies. He is sure that if he loses Elros, he loses Maglor, so he’s doing everything he can not to lose Elros. 

\- The army lands in the middle of a siege. They turn the tide in the elves’ favor. Elros chops his way across the battlefield to get to Elrond, and they fight side by side until it’s over. “Don’t ever do that again,” Elros spits, and then he’s clinging to Elrond and crying like he never once allowed himself to cry. Elrond is too. 

\- Maglor finds them like that, and Elrond looks up and lights up to see him, and then Maglor is embracing them both too.

\- Maedhros meets with his uncle the High King. Who may or may not be _his_ High King and who may or may not be holding a grudge, which makes addressing him awkward. 

\- Caranthir is not being the least bit helpful and while Maglor might, under other circumstances, under the current ones, Maedhros knows better than to ask. 

\- Then Finarfin spots him and goes, “Nephews! You’re alive!” and seems so honestly pleased by this that things get a little bit easier from there.

\- Things go better yet when Maedhros is able to give news of Galadriel. Maybe, just maybe, their family can start being a bit less of a disaster. 

\- Short of that, maybe now they can at least win the war.


End file.
